Sorry, I'm horrible, I haven't updated in sooo long! I'll definitely try to update the next one sooner and make it longer!

Thanks for everyone who reviewed and favorited/followed!

jslee102: thanks for the suggestion, I was actually considering the same thing!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, though it is a bit shorter and it's mainly about Harry's and Anto's relationship. The next one will be bigger and Harry will be coming to some important realizations.

DISCLAIMER: I sadly don't own Harry Potter, and I'm not making any profit from this story.

Chapter 6

'How do I look?' Harry turned to face Anto and his jaw dropped open, making him unable to answer her question. True, he had seen her in a bikini, but somehow the tight black mini skirt and halter-top she was wearing made him reconsider his previous decision to do nothing about his feelings for her. Her hair was styled in soft curls falling down her back and she was wearing some make-up, enhancing her blue eyes in a way that made his mouth go dry.

'Beautiful' he finally replied, ignoring the butterflies in his stomach. That must have been the right answer, because she blushed and smiled shyly, thanking him and leading him to the dining room where Tía Ana was waiting. They all walked to the car, Harry feeling excited, though quite apprehensive. It was finally Saturday evening, which meant they were ready for José's sixteenth birthday party. He had enjoyed the rest of the week, and today Antonia's parents had taken them to visit the town of Segovia and the monastery of El Escorial, both of which he had enjoyed immensely. Now, he would be going to the first teenage party of his life, a fact that made him feel scared and oddly proud at the same time.

'You'll be fine … you're foreign, everyone will be stupidly interested in you' Anto whispered to him, interrupting his thoughts. He grinned back at her, wondering for the millionth time how she could read him so easily. He hoped she was right in any case; though he would much rather spend time with her than with a bunch of teens he didn't know.

They arrived at José's house, who ushered them inside grinning. Anto gave him his present and a hug and Tía Ana left after promising to be back to pick them up at 1 am, which made Anto groan since she thought it was too early. Honestly, Harry was relieved it wouldn't be any later, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

'Beers are in the cooler, if we want something else we have to ask José' Anto translated to Harry while they followed her cousin around the chaos of the house that was already full of people. They finally made it to the kitchen and Anto chose vodka with orange juice, much to Harry's surprise. He had no idea she drank. He reluctantly picked rum and coke and choked slightly at the taste, though he found it interesting. He hoped the night didn't turn into a disaster.

OoOoOoOoOo

Hermione was startled from her transfiguration book by a loud tap on her window, and she promptly opened it to let Hedwig in, eager to read Harry's letter. She had been waiting for it for a week for Merlin's sake! Either he was quite far away of having too much fun to reply soon. She read it quickly, slightly disappointed that she wouldn't be telling anything useful to the order, but she thought it made sense that he couldn't tell her where he was. Imagine if a death eater were to intercept that letter! They would attack Harry and his family instantly, especially now that they didn't have magical wards around them.

She read the part about the girl smiling, happy for her friend. Harry didn't usually mention too much about his life, so if he was talking about her it probably meant he liked her. She hoped it worked out for him, though she certainly wouldn't be mentioning her to Ginny. There was no point on disappointing her younger friend over something that she wasn't sure of, especially now that she had started dating Michael Corner and seemed happy. All in all, it seemed Harry was having a good summer despite what had happened at the end of the year, which made her satisfied. He really wanted news of the wizarding world though, that was clear. She regretted not being able to give them to him, but Dumbledore had insisted, and he wouldn't have told her to keep her friend uninformed without a good reason. She sighed unhappily and left the letter on her bedside table, resolving to tell the adults about it tomorrow. She had enjoyed spending time with the Weasleys and the order, especially Ginny and Tonks, but she was starting to feel somewhat cramped in this house. She wondered how her parents were doing, missing the closeness they used to have before they found out she was a witch. Now they lived in completely different worlds, and the distance between them grew longer each year.

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'So you're from England?'

Harry smiled and replied affirmatively, enjoying the casual talk with Antonia's friends. Students at Hogwarts would have never asked him these mundane questions, especially not without previous assumptions about him, and he found it surprisingly enjoyable to properly meet people his age while having the chance to actually introduce himself. The rum and coke, which was half gone by this point, also helped, as it had given him a pleasant fuzzy feeling and extra confidence, which he thought was quite welcome.

'Is football a big thing there too?' Harry was about to reply when he noticed Anto stiffen beside him and step closer to him. He turned to look at her in surprise, but she wasn't looking at him, but at a taller teen with brown curls and green eyes that had just joined the group.

'Harry, this is Carlos, Carlos this is Harry' Anto told the dude smiling, but Harry noticed a steely hint in her voice. Carlos returned the greeting barely glancing at him, as his eyes were currently focused on looking Anto up and down appreciatively. Harry felt an unexplainable rage at the other boy and gritted his teeth to stop himself from saying something. What, he wasn't sure.

'Come and dance' Anto told him loudly and led him by the hand to the dance floor, Harry following dutifully while wondering what that had been about. He hoped he didn't make a fool of himself in front of her, since the music blaring was totally different from the one at the Yule Ball last year, and he had no idea how to proceed.

'Err, Anto, I've never danced this before' Harry said nervously.

'Who cares, just go with the music' she replied grinning at him, and started to move seamlessly to the song. He forced himself not to stare at her figure dancing to the beat and started to copy her movements. It wasn't as bad as he'd thought, and after a few minutes he started actually listening to the tune and enjoying following it. The fuzzy feeling in his chest was increasing, and he wasn't sure if it was the drink or the closeness to his Spanish companion, but at the moment he didn't care. They were dancing closer and closer, and as their eyes locked, Harry found he couldn't look away.

'Do you want to get another drink?' Anto asked him after a while. Harry hid his disappointment quickly and nodded. They made their way to the kitchen talking amiably, trying to be heard through the music. He didn't think he'd had so much fun in a long time, the Yule Ball definitely paled in comparison. Though to be fair, he had spent it sulking about Cho dancing with Cedric, so that was to be expected.

They made it to the kitchen in time to see Carlos standing in the doorway, and Anto stiffened again, taking Harry's hand. A warm feeling spread through his chest, and this time he knew it had nothing to do with the alcohol. The girl didn't seem to share his sentiment as she politely, but coolly, asked Carlos to move aside. The other teen looked angry, but complied, and Anto turned to grin at Harry and started mixing their drinks.

'Do you want to drink it outside?' Harry asked. She nodded and they walked to the patio in comfortable silence, finally sitting by the edge of the pool. It was a lot quieter here, only a few scattered couples and small groups talking animatedly.

'So why do you hate Carlos?' the raven-haired teen asked curiously, taking a big gulp of the rum and coke and choking slightly. He was now more used to asking Anto personal questions, and knew she wouldn't get offended.

'Mmm it's a long story' replied Anto looking at him 'I had a crush on him for a long time, a year or so…and last month we all went on holiday for a week and he seemed really interested too, so I got my hopes up you know. He even told me he really liked me and we almost kissed a couple of times…but after that week we came back to Madrid and he never called me, and ignored all my calls, so he was clearly just bored that week and playing around with me' she said bitterly. Harry ignored the thoughts about punching Carlos in the face in favor of his surprise at her angry tone. He'd never heard Anto talk like that before, and it made him think that there was still a lot he didn't know about her. This only made him want to talk to her more, so it wasn't a bad thought.

'Do you still like him?' he asked her, hoping fervently that the answer was negative. He immediately chastised himself for the direct question, and wondered vaguely whether he should stop drinking.

Anto looked at him directly in the eye, making his heart beat erratically. 'Not really, I've found there are more interesting people around' she replied smiling.

'Oh really, like me for example?' he asked flirtatiously, shocked at his own daring. He could always pass it as a joke if things got awkward, but he had never been so forward with a girl before. The drink definitely improved his confidence, Harry decided, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Maybe he should try to act like this when in his normal state too. It felt freer somehow.

'Wouldn't you like to know' Anto replied mimicking his flirtatious grin and getting a tad closer. His breath hitched and he cursed to himself as he realized that she had, again, left him wordless, and he could not think of a good comeback. He wondered vaguely if the drink was affecting her too, though he was a lot more concerned about his heart thumping at the moment.

'That's good… that you don't like him anymore, I mean' he clarified at her confused look. 'You deserve better'. He didn't know what made him say it, but her brilliant smile at that comment let him know it was the right thing.

'Thanks Harry' she replied smiling, and put her head on his shoulder. Ignoring the butterflies in his stomach, he finally dared to put his arm around her and brought her closer to him gently.

'Anytime' he whispered. They stayed like that for a long time, Harry didn't know how long. Her forehead was just below his lips and he longed to kiss it, but his confidence was leaving him, along with the fuzzy feeling of the drink, and he didn't dare. He didn't know what her reaction would be, and he didn't want things to be awkward between the two of them.

'Anto, tu mama llegó (…, your mom is here)' José appeared suddenly, looking at Harry suspiciously. He smiled weakly at her cousin and helped the girl up.

'Gracias por todo, la pasamos super bien (Thanks for everything, we had a great time)' she replied animatedly hugging José. Harry nervously shook his hand and followed after her, ignoring his threatening gaze, which clearly said if you hurt her, you're dead. Good thing his intention was exactly the opposite.

oOoOoOoOoO

The Order shared frustrated comments about their fruitless search for the boy-who-lived. The easy part had been breaking Ted Tonks into the Dursleys' house and searching the right documents to find the license plate (as no one else knew where to find it), but they had searched for the Dursleys' car in various touristic sites around England to no avail, and they still had many to go. It would have been amazing if they could have tracked it through magical means, but it was impossible. How would they have found a random pattern of letters and numbers on an inanimate object? There was certainly no spell for that. Thank Merlin they still had apparition, so they could move from site to site fairly quickly.

Hermione had told them about Harry's reply, and all they could gleam from it was that he was in the muggle world, which was already fairly obvious since he was with his relatives. Dumbledore had looked incredibly frustrated at the uselessness of the information, but Tonks personally didn't see how he expected anything else. Of course Harry would worry about his letters being intercepted if they had just told him of the risk, how dumb did Dumbledore think the teen was? Tonks hadn't met him yet, but from what she had heard he had done a lot of impressive stuff, even if everyone insisted on treating him like a baby. She thought the Order should rest easier knowing that if they couldn't find him while actively searching for him, the Death Eaters would never do so, especially if they didn't even know he was gone, but hey, what did she know? She was only a qualified auror.

'Keep searching' was Dumbledore's final instruction. She sighed, though she didn't expect anything different. She caught Snape rolling his eyes as well and grinned. She had never thought they would actually agree on something.

oOoOoOoOoO

Harry lay awake in his bed, not able to get his embrace with Anto out of his mind. He wondered whether he should actually do anything about his feelings. It did seem like she liked him back after all, she had certainly not minded his closeness tonight. He wondered what was about her that drew him in. He supposed it was her spontaneous nature, and the way she made him feel for once in his life carefree, like a normal teenager.

That was the best part about Spain. It was nice to be able to be someone else other than the boy-who-lived to others, to be unremarkable and allowed to decide for himself about what to do with his summer and to pursue the things he wanted. Though Anto's parents were somewhat overly controlling, at least according to her, they had nothing on Mrs. Weasley, so it didn't bother him at all. At least Tía Ana and Tío Hernán let them do anything they wished during the day, as long as they knew where they would be. They had even let them go to the party, though they were of course not aware of the drinking.

It had been a great party, Harry mused. Like most of the days he'd spent in this country, he had had such an amazing time that he'd forgotten all about Voldemort, at least while they were doing different things. Maybe he should start applying that philosophy in Great Britain as well, though it would be admittedly harder…worry less about what he couldn't control, and enjoy life a little more.

That wasn't such a bad idea, he thought as he fell asleep. He drifted off thinking about happy smiles and blue eyes. For the first time, he didn't have nightmares.

I hope you liked the chapter! Please read and review, all suggestions are welcome!